N.B.A. ROUNDUP; ARE LAS VEGAS'S ODDS IMPROVING?

By LIZ ROBBINS

Published: February 15, 2007

The mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman, confirmed yesterday that N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern was willing to listen to a proposal that would enable an N.B.A. team to play in that city.

''He said: 'The ball is in your court. You make a proposal and I'll bring it to my owners in April and they can vote on it,' '' Goodman said.

For the first time, Stern appears to be considering changing his position, which has been not to allow a franchise in a city that allows gambling on N.B.A. games.

''What I said to Oscar was that, we, the N.B.A, appreciate Las Vegas as a destination of an All-Star Game,'' Stern said in a telephone interview. ''On the broader subject of a team here, it's his turn to speak to us.''

In an interview last week, Stern said that gambling was the only stumbling block to prevent a team from playing in Las Vegas and that all games had to be removed from the sports books before there could be any consideration. LIZ ROBBINS